MEET THE judges

PHUTHI MAHANYELE-DABENGWA, South Africa CEO, Naspers

Phuthi, who is joining our panel of judges for the first time, is looking forward to interacting with the women at the helm of South Africa’s entrepreneurial sector who are seeking to make a significant difference through their work. Before joining Naspers in July 2019, Phuthi held the position of CEO at the Shanduka Group. She is the former executive chairperson of investment holding company Sigma Capital, and served as the head of the Project Finance South Africa business unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Prior to this, she was the vice president at Fieldstone, an international firm specialising in the financing of infrastructure assets.

She has been awarded several prestigious accolades, including CNBC Africa’s All Africa Business Leaders Woman of the Year Award in 2019 and the Forbes Woman Africa Business Woman of the Year Award in 2014, and she has been counted among the Top 50 Women to Watch by the Wall Street Journal.

Phuthi holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University and an MBA from De Montfort University, and she has completed the Kennedy School of Government Executive Education programme ‘Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century’ at Harvard University.

Phuthi mentors young professionals and provides support for young students in her personal capacity. She also sits on the board of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, which focuses, among others, on education and entrepreneurship: through the Adopt-A-School Foundation it has to date benefited 713 434 learners, and through Black Umbrellas it has incubated 2 775 black businesses into employers of people in various industries.

As South Africa CEO of

Naspers, Phuthi will reinforce the company’s commitment to the advancement of women in its businesses and through its social-impact programme

Naspers Labs and its investment vehicle Naspers Foundry. WHAT PHUTHI WILL BE LOOKING FOR: ‘I am looking for courage.’

A competition such as this is incredibly impactful for women still working their way up in both corporate and entrepreneurial businesses.

PROFESSOR THULI MADONSELA, Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Law

IT has been an honour to have Prof Thuli Madonsela on our panel of judges since the very beginning. Currently the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice and Law Professor at the University of Stellenbosch, she conducts and coordinates social justice research and teaches constitutional and administrative law.

‘Some jobs require you to have a degree, but to be an entrepreneur, you need an idea, passion and hard work,’ she says. Widely respected for her courageous work as South Africa’s Public Protector, a title she held with the utmost integrity for seven years (the award-winning film Whispering Truth to Power documents her final year in the position), she has also received several accolades, including being named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2014. In 2018, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and was appointed as Knight of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration. Thuli is a member of the African Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Scottish WS Society. She is also the founder of the Thuma Foundation, an independent democracy leadership and literacy social enterprise, and convenor of the Social Justice M-Plan, an initiative aimed at catalysing progress towards ending poverty and reducing inequality by 2030. She has also co-authored a children’s book, Melo’s Kingdom. Thuli believes it is often an entrepreneur thinking outside the box who contributes to solving society’s problems.

WHAT THULI WILL BE LOOKING

FOR: ‘I am looking for a woman who is building a world that she’d want to live in. She also needs to be looking to the future and the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.’

ENID LIZAMORE, executive head of human resources at Santam

Enid believes female entrepreneurs will play a significant role in the future of South Africa’s economy. She has filled executive HR positions in industries ranging from technology to banking. She also sits on various boards and owns two companies. She believes her career highlights have been characterised by the women she’s surrounded by – those who help other women succeed and encourage them through mentoring and coaching. She has been at the forefront of Santam’s transformational talent management agenda and has been instrumental in earning the group its Top Employer certification. She holds these words by Eleanor Roosevelt in high regard: ‘Do the thing you think you cannot do.’ It is a message that resonates with her because it challenges the limitations women place on themselves.

WHAT ENID WILL BE LOOKING FOR: ‘I am looking for courageous women who display tenacity, a hunger to empower others, and a willingness to build a bigger and brighter South Africa.’

DAWN NATHAN-JONES, entrepreneur; CEO at Over the Rainbow

Dawn was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. At the age of 21, she started working at Imperial Car Rental, now known as Europcar, and spent the following 35 years growing the business. In 2016, she stepped down as CEO to immerse herself in experiences that would allow her to give back. Her first opportunity was as a judge on the M-Net reality show Shark Tank South Africa. She then continued to spend her time engaging, empowering and growing women entrepreneurs through multiple initiatives. Dawn has joined forces with Lesley Waterkeyn of Over the Rainbow, a company that provides entrepreneurs with knowledge and support. In 2021, they launched Smart Woman, an online course developed in collaboration with FAIRLADY that provides strategies and tools for women wanting to start a business or side hustle.

Just being part of this journey changes your life. I am passionate about seeing women lead and drive change – and have thus made it my responsibility to try to pave a pathway of opportunities for them.

Women-led businesses in this country have made a remarkable impact in driving change – politically, socially, and economically.

WHAT DAWN WILL BE LOOKING FOR: ‘I am looking for women entrepreneurs who have experience in supporting, nurturing, and empowering other women to succeed in their own right.’